Tag: happy

I believe in love. I believe in marriage. I believe that no matter how difficult the road is, all marriages can survive even the most difficult of situations. I have a lot of friends who have faced very real and what can seem, to most, as impossible to forgive events. However, if you are both diligent, choose humility and forgiveness, the best part of your marriage can be on the other side. Marriage is not easy, if you think it is you have not had your trial yet. You will in some way, be prepared and choose to love your way through it without losing yourself.

We are all guilty of making poor decisions, giving into our inner desires instead of what is right. It can be a relationship outside of marriage, a crime, financial difficulties, anything that betrays your partners trust. I’ve been guilty myself. I’ve also been the one that has been scorned. I try to encourage my friends to work through their difficulties, I tell them how wonderful my marriage was after Zed, and I fought through some trials. The things I’ve experienced and the choices I’ve made in my past have made me who I am today. I’m not proud of a lot of it. Nevertheless, I am different because of it all. I would never make the same choices today.

It was on a Tuesday Morning around 3:00AM in January of 2011, my phone rang, it was a blocked call but I knew it was him; QJ, I couldn’t help myself, I answered anyway knowing I shouldn’t. I needed to know why? I still need to know why? It was only three weeks after he married her, six weeks since my world was turned upside down, only seven weeks since we spent Thanksgiving with my whole extended family. He played the game well and I was blindsided.

I answered and said “Hello” there was silence but I knew he was there. I repeated myself several times asking, “Why are you calling?” Nothing, just silence. So, I started talking about everything that was going on in our lives, myself and the kids. I told him of going on vacation, my upcoming trip to Pittsburgh anything, except speak about my daughter. I figured if I spoke softly and let him know that I still loved him that he would say something. He never said a word. I finally said “If you are not going to brave enough to speak I’m hanging up.” so I did.

The next night the same thing, the phone rang, silence… This time I was angry, I said “the least you could fucking do is say you’re sorry!” that is when the sound came, a grown man sobbing on the other end of the line, pure sobs; I could feel his heart breaking through the phone. All I heard was “I’m sorry” through the sobs. I hated him and loved him in the same moment. My heart ripped out of my chest. It was validation of what I already knew, he really did love me. He still was not speaking anything else so I began asking questions. “Why did you marry her?”, “You could have made any other choice!”, “Why?” All I heard was “Reilly?” infuriated I said “You lost the right to know anything about her.”, he claimed he loved my daughter as if she were his own. He said he loved all my children and he would be there for them for the rest of his life. At least that is what I thought, what he made me believe. I now know, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have sacrificed them for his own selfish gain.

He couldn’t answer why, in the thousand times that I’ve asked since that first phone call, he’s never given me a reason. He’s never said he was happy, he’s never said he made the right choice, he’s never said he is no longer in love with me, quite the opposite. That day began a year of torture for me when all I wanted was closure. I wanted him to tell me that he chose marriage, that he believed in love, and that he knew he would be happier on the other side with her, that he was sorry for the thousands of lies he told. Instead, I just got more lies that lead me down a very dark road.

Even today my heart still breaks for the love I thought I had, for the person I thought he was, I still love that person, the one that doesn’t exist.